Passing The Mantel
by angel-castiel-rules-the-world
Summary: Thoughts of Tim McGee as he walks through Gibbs house upon the death of him and Tony. Reflections on the life and death of Tony and Gibbs. Slash. Established Gibbs/DiNozzo. Tibbs. One shot.


**Hello. Okay this is my first story for this fandom, and I know its short but it came to me as I was reading other stories and I had to write it down. I hope you like it.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS.**

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Timothy McGee walked up to the front door of Gibb's house, their house, Tony's house, his new house.

Others had offered to accompany him, but he had rejected them all. This wasn't a time for them, for deciding what he was going to do with what his best friend, his once SFA turned boss, what Tony had left him. No, this was a time to remember the ones who had lived here. This was time for him to remember them before he thought to consider what they had left him. Their parting, his SAF, his friend, his boss's final gift to him.

He reached out for the handle knowing it would be as it always was, unlocked. Turning it he moved inside and breathed in the smell which was still present even after all this time. It was a smell of woodwork coming up from the long unused basement combined with beeswax polish from the piano. It something that was just him, just them, just this home.

He remembered when he first seen the inside of this house, it had been barren and contained only the basic needs of a man living alone, apart from the basement, which had held a half finished boat. It was a statement of who Gibbs had been at that time, something that screamed him. Contained, yet welcoming. It could have seemed cold, but it didn't. It was reversed, and he hadn't felt sure about it. But he had been with Tony and somehow with him there he could feel the warmth in the place, the home that it was.

The next time he had come he had seen the slight changes but not registered what had brought them about. There was at that point, a decent TV, rather than the old black and white one. And the time after that only a few months later a DVD player had been added, as well as a few classics appearing on the shelves above it.

How had he not seen it then? They were Tony's favourites after all. But no, he never noticed what was under his nose, though he liked to think it was more due to the abilities of Gibbs and Tony's to cover-up the truth than that he really was so blind. But then it was early in his career, when he was young and still took things as he saw them. Before Tony had taught him to look deeper into everything and everyone. In fact it had taken Gibbs retiring and the addition of the baby grand in what had been the dining room for him to finally figure out what he should have seen long ago.

Because when Gibbs retired and Tony took over the team there was no need for the two men to hide what they meant to each other. Not anymore. Tim had obviously asked Tony about it. Asked how long they had been together, but Tony had just smiled and said sadly "rule twelve McGoo."

Rule twelve. Never have a relationship with a co-worker. It took him a while to realise that both Tony and Gibbs had tried to stick by that rule for 15 years together, even if they did bend it a little. It took him a good few months of visiting this house and seeing the changes, feeling the changes in the atmosphere to realise the truth. That it wasn't until Gibbs retired that Tony had moved in with him. That they had truly become a couple. It wasn't until then that he realised that they had never let the love they had for each other show until Gibbs handed in his papers and got his man.

How had they done that? Waited so long to be together? He couldn't get his head around it, but whenever he had tried to get an answer out of each of them they would just smile, Tony telling him that somethings were worth waiting for, and Gibbs predictably just changing the subject.

He remembered coming over here, to this house, once Tony had again become his boss, finding him playing the piano while Gibbs worked away in the basement. He had come to get some guidance from his boss, from his friend. Hoping he would help him try to work out what was going on in his mind. Just as he knew Tony had once sort out Gibbs' help.

But there were differences between the two men when they gave the guidance you sort, sometimes without saying a word. The first being he knew that when people came to talk to Gibbs he offered them bourbon in a jar, Tony on the other hand always offered bandy in a proper brandy glass. And while Gibbs would then go back to his woodwork, Tony would sit playing the piano until you were ready to talk. And yet, even if he didn't Tony seemed to know why he were there. He would play a song that reflected whatever it that had brought him to this house. To him. Tony saw so much, Tim had never realised how much until then. Until he became his and Ellie's boss without question.

He liked to think he and Tony had had a similar relationship to Tony and Gibbs, without the attraction part.

He had given up counting the number of times he had sat on the couch and listened to Tony until Gibbs came up and saw him and sat with him for a while. Watching the man he loved play with an open and loving expression on his face. Before that was Tony would change the tune, and turn and look at him while his fingers flew across the keys. Letting the music talk for him. Ask the question Tim hadn't felt able to do so, yet also giving the answer in the peace and clarity that he needed.

Tony had changed so much during that time. When he became his boss for real Tim was at first surprised to realise that long gone was the babbling idiot he had first met, instead now stood a smiling wise man who knew more than he would ever say. More than you wanted to know, but he was someone he knew he could trust. He was his friend. It made Tim wonder if this was the true Tony, the one he had kept hidden along with his love for Gibbs.

And then came the time that Gibbs became ill, becoming restricted to his bed and slowly dying. Tony had handed in his resignation without thought, handing the mantel of the team on to Tim's shoulders with a smile and a movie quote, letting him know he trusted that he would carry on.

At that time their relationship had changed. Tim would still come to this house and ask for answers to the questions he had. Come here to think. But he would also come to be there for his friend, be someone he could lean on as the man he loved slowly slipped away from him. Moving in himself for the few months after Gibbs was gone to give Tony the support he needed. And even when he moved back out again, Tony saying he was fine, he still found himself at this house most nights. In fact he was there so often he moved his typewriter and desk into the livingroom, sitting there writing books about the ones they had loved and lost. Developing the characters in Deep Six to include the love Gibbs and Tony had shared while he listened to Tong playing whatever was on his mind.

In recent years, since he had taken up the mantel of leadership, he had encouraged the open relationship between himself and his SFA. And as he spent most evenings around at what was once Gibbs home, and was now Tony's, he found that Ellie would come to him. He would offer her a glass of scotch whiskey and sit her on the couch he had spent so many night on himself before returning to his typewriter, waiting for when she was ready to talk, or not talk, all with the background of Tony's music. He never interfered. He would come and sit with Ellie as Gibbs had once done with him, but never to answer her questions. Tony had always known she was there to talk to him.

And when Tony had fallen ill due to complications from his time having the plague, he too had retired to take care of his friend. To be there for him so he could remain in the only home he had ever known. And in doing so he had handed the mantel of the team to Ellie with a wise literary quote, giving her the team to lead as she felt fit.

But that none of that truly mattered anymore, what did was that now not only Gibbs, but Tony too was gone. And now he had this house, Tony leaving it to him in his will. This house that contains so many memories. So many things he couldn't get rid of, for a start there was still the half made boat in the basement. Tony had confided in him that he had no idea how to get it out, but he refused to break apart Gibbs last work. What was he to do now? He knew neither Gibbs nor Tony would want him to turn this in a mausoleum of them, but still he could not find it in himself to change anything. There were so many memories. So much of what had gone, and yet it still it lingered.

But again that was not his thoughts right now. No now he was here to remember his friends, his bosses, the people who had helped shape him into the man he was now. The people who had always been at his side. He walked into the livingroom at this thought and could not stop himself from looking at the pictures there. It was as if they had had their own wall of remembrance, that and the fish. Tony had always replaced the fish when one died. Still calling them Kate and Ziva, and adding Ducky and Gibbs when it was needed. But there were also photos of those along they had lost along the way. All those who had touched the two men's hearts, there was even a rare photo of Shannon and Kelly.

He looked at the one of Kate, he didn't think she would appreciate it, Tony had caught her first thing in the morning after they had slept at the office. She did not look happy, but she did look like the Kate he remembered. Kate. She would know what to do now they were gone. She would have seen what was happening between Tony and Gibbs where he didn't, and maybe she did. He would never know. She was gone, they were all gone.

But looking at them, the pictures of the past he didn't feel as he thought he would. He thought he would feel hurt and loss, but seeing them here he felt as he always had when he looked upon them. A feeling of pleasure that he had had a chance to know them. A chance to be part of their lives. With that he pulled out a picture of Tony from his pocket that he had brought with him. When he had first picked it up from his home he had no idea why he had done it, but now he did. With care he put it on the side before going down to the basement and getting a hammer and nail, returning he choose what was to him the right position, the one right next to Gibbs, and hammered in the nail before adding Tony's photo to the wall. And in doing so one thing became clear to him, this place was his home. And he would make sure that he kept the traditions started by those he loved as family. It would be a welcoming place were the door was always unlocked for anyone who needed.

Because that was what this house was, a refuge for those who knew to seek it. It was a safe place for family and a home filled with love. It was the new mantel given to him by his friend, his boss, his brother, and he would not let him, them, down.


End file.
